Walter Matthews

Walter Matthews, Executive Director for the NSC

Ribbons, Cultures and Honoring

I was blessed to be asked to be one of the five scissor-wielding ribbon cutters at the Ribbon Cutting and Eve of Pentecost Celebration at The Ark and The Dove. I had never ever been to a ribbon cutting but it was a moving experience to stand alongside Dave Mangan, Sr. Nancy Kellar, S.C., Fr. Joseph Mele (representative of the Diocese of Pittsburgh) and Johnny Bertucci to officially “open” The Ark and the Dove for its new phase of service to the Church and to the Renewal. As Johnny says elsewhere in this issue, it was and continues to be one of the surprises of the Holy Spirit. As we say down South, “y’all come!”

In this Year of Mission in Mercy, one of our four emphases is to “promote a culture of Pentecost.” Allow me to quote from the NSC and other National Leadership Groups’ Statement (available on our website):

Our mission includes bringing to “life that ‘culture of Pentecost’ that alone can make fruitful the civilization of love and friendly co-existence among peoples,” as Pope John Paul II encouraged us in 2002, and Pope Benedict echoed. For the two Popes “culture” is certainly more than prayer meetings or even other religious activities. It embraces all that the Church is! Pentecost is to be a living, experienced reality within the Church “where the Holy Spirit is known, loved, and frequently invoked; where the whole way of life flows from the active presence of the Spirit and his gifts.” (ICCRS’ Baptism in the Holy Spirit, p 93).

The culture of Pentecost is not to be confined in the Church but through the Church needs to spread in our society in our economics, politics, international relations, and, of course, our “culture” in the sense of the arts, music, film and so on, transforming a “culture of death” into a “culture of life”; with an uncompromising commitment to the human dignity of all persons; and a passion that true justice, with mercy and love, be available to all.

This is a mission of global proportions. It moves us from our daily lives of witness to lives that, to quote the bumper sticker, think globally and act locally. This mission needs to become part of our very souls. We are called and challenged to move beyond our comfort zones.

We are called to “teach about this dimension of the call to mission and to challenge all to see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our day in new and deeper ways.”

One of those who has so taught us is Msgr. Joseph Malagreca of the Diocese of Brooklyn. He celebrates the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood this June. We rejoice in his faithfulness and service to the Church and the Renewal especially among Haitians and Hispanics but truly for all the Renewal in his leadership of the Planning Committee for the Gathering of National Leadership Groups over the last ten years and his chairing of the 40th Conference held in New Jersey in 2007, the 45th held in Philadelphia in 2012, and the upcoming 50th Anniversary Celebration in Pittsburgh for our Jubilee. Ad Multos Annos.